GREEN STEPS

Ly Hoang Long is fascinated by his native country and uses photography as the means to create a sensational portrait of it. "Green Steps" is part of this body of images that testifies to the rich diversity of Vietnam. Produced in May 2008 in the Yên Bai province in the northeast of the country, it reveals the beauty of the terraced paddy fields that are the particularity of this region. At the end of the only harvest of the year, the land is prepared. It is razed and tilled with the help of buffalo or by the farmers themselves. The farmers start a new harvest as soon as rain inundates the terraces. The rice is still green in May, however it turns yellow between September and October and the farmers must then cut the mature stems. Fond of travelling, Ly Hoang Long takes his projects beyond the Vietnamese borders, along the routes of Nepal, Myanmar, China, Cambodia, but also Switzerland.

Ly Hoang Long was born in 1965 in Dalat, a city located on the high plateaus of central Vietnam. He now works in Ho Chi Minh city. Since childhood, the photographer has been fascinated by colours and images and began his professional career as a graphic designer. He discovered photography in 1993 through a friend, bought his first analogue reflex and two years later, made a dark room in his apartment. One thing led to another and he definitively abandoned design in order to devote his time to his images. Destiny seemed to approve of his choice, since he is now nicknamed the king of digital photography with over twenty years experience to his name and 210 international prizes, including that of best travel photographer in 2014 (TFOTY). Several of his pictures also won awards in the same year at the CBRE Urban Photographer of the Year and from National Geographic.